A New Elastomeric Biomaterial for Arterial Diseases Applications

The covering of self-expandable stents (S-ESs) with elastic biocompatible membrane may avoid the atherosclerotic plaque prolapse between the stent struts into the lumen. In this work it is proposed a new elastomeric biomaterial, combined with a spray-technique, to realise a thin membrane for covering S-ESs. The membrane resulted adherent to metallic struts and able to follow stent deformation. The new biomaterial, an elastomeric silicone (polydimethylsiloxane PDMS) based poly(ether)urethane (PEtU/PDMS), deposited on the S-ESs by the spray-technique, showed in vitro good adhesion to metallic struts, even after deformation and recoil, and did not compromise its elastic behaviour. Capitalising on the good biocompatibility and low trombogenicity demonstrated by the material within previous studies it is expected that it can be used successfully for S-ESs covering for iliac-femoral applications.